Description: News footage covering the shooting of officer Bernard M. Bennett in May of 1970 in the Oak Park area of Sacramento.
Officer Bernard Bennett (1946 - 1970) was critically wounded by a sniper’s bullet from a rooftop as he drove his patrol car through an Oak Park neighborhood on May 9, 1970. The bullet ripped through the roof of the car and struck Officer Bennett in the back of the head. His partner, Officer Lloyd Smothers, was unharmed. Bennett, a Vietnam veteran on the force two years, died on May 13, 1970. This attack occurred during heightened tensions between the police and the African American community in the Oak Park area. Two members of the Black Panther Party, Jack Strivers and Mark Teemer, and two nonmembers, Booker Cooke and Ceriaco Cabrallis, later known as the Oak Park Four, were arrested for the killing. The men were ultimately acquitted due to lack of evidence, the case remains unsolved.
Source: SVHS from original 16mm film
Accession number: 1983/131; VAM 066
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